Eric Cantona, the volatile French genius English football learned to call King Eric
In December 1991 he quit football after calling each member of a disciplinary panel an idiot. A psychoanalyst's advice sent him to England instead, where he won the last old First Division with Leeds and then four Premier League titles in five years at Manchester United, collar turned up, number 7 on his back.
Born in Marseille on 24 May 1966 to a dressmaker mother from Barcelona and a nurse and painter father of Sardinian descent, Cantona began as a goalkeeper like his dad before drifting forward. He played over 200 games for local side SO Caillolais, debuted for Auxerre in November 1983, and helped France's under-21s win the 1988 European title, scoring a hat-trick against England. Marseille, the club he supported as a boy, then paid a French record 22 million francs for him.
Trouble followed him everywhere. He was banned for a kung-fu style tackle, kicked a ball into the crowd and hurled away his shirt during a friendly, was barred from the national team for a year after insulting its coach on television, and flung his boots at a Montpellier team-mate. Loan spells at Bordeaux and Montpellier, a French Cup and a league title at Marseille, and a move to Nîmes all came and went. Michel Platini, then France coach, coaxed him out of retirement. Liverpool's Graeme Souness turned him down, and Sheffield Wednesday gave him only a two-day trial.
Leeds took him on loan in January 1992 for £100,000, adding £900,000 later to make it permanent, and paid him £7,000 a week. Used mainly off the bench, he scored three goals in 15 appearances but supplied many for Lee Chapman as Leeds went unbeaten in their final five games and beat Manchester United to the title.
At Old Trafford he collected two League and FA Cup Doubles and scored 20 goals in 45 games for France, whom he captained from 1994. A 1995 assault conviction over an abusive spectator brought a community service order and an eight-month ban that kept him out of Euro 96. He retired in 1997, shortly before turning 31, and moved into acting in films such as Elizabeth and Looking for Eric, while also winning the 2005 Beach Soccer World Cup as France's player-manager. Pelé named him in the FIFA 100 in 2004.
Source: Eric Cantona
